Sunday, May 8, 2011

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore - review

Now these covers.....simple, understated yet gets the point across. This is a huge lizard, he looks hungry and yet there's something off about him....

A very long time ago, I bought an old paperback from a garage sale called Practical Demon-Keeping. It was a quirky book, funny and yet there was horror in it. This was during my historical romance reading era - so it was a fluke that I even picked up this book, but I remember laughing and enjoying it very much. And because this wasn't my usual type of book, after I was finished with it, I put it up and forgot about it. Since then I moved about three times, getting rid of books each time (to save my husband's poor back, all those books we packed, over and over) and have become bored with romance, and obsessed with urban fantasy, scifi and fantasy .

A few years ago, I found an older copy of Blood Sucking Fiends, and thought that was pretty good...then I thought "this guy is interesting, I wonder if he writes any other books"....so of course using the old handy computer, I started looking for this guy's books...and saw that he did write a few others..nothing really clicked though, so I just continued doing my normal thing...I came across You Suck and The Stupidest Angel about a year ago and just LOVED them...and then it occurred to me that something was kind of familiar...I looked at the list of books at the front of The Stupidest Angel..really LOOKED and lo and behold! there was Practical Demon Keeping listed. "Wow", I thought...."I used to have that book. I wonder what happened to it".....On our last move, while setting up my books, I happened to come across it. I still own it. One of these days, I'm going to re-read it. In the meantime, I've read a few others by Christopher Moore, such as Island of the Sequinned Love Nun (pretty good), and A Dirty Job. Each book has been interesting and funny, with just enough mayhem to keep one interested. The scenes of horror were mildly described - which sounds weird, but by that I mean even though a person was being eaten by a huge gigantic lizard, it wasn't described with lots of gore and ...crunchy descriptions...it was just stated. So you're not going to get nauseated reading about this (if you happen to have a sensitive stomach) unless you start to imagine and dwell on what's going on....

In Lust Lizard, Christopher Moore returns to the setting of this debut novel (Practical Demon Keeping) - Pine Cove. The town psychiatrist is feeling a little guilty over the death of one of her patients, so she decides to try an experiment - she's not sure that the antidepressents are all that, so she orders placebos for her patients....at the same time, a huge lizard like creatur awakens from a long slumber. This creature has quite a few abilities...one of which is to affect the lust of other creatures...so the combination of a sudden withdrawal from antidepressants, and signals from this lizard has quite a few of the residents of Pine Cove feeling pretty randy and out of control....Mayhem ensues. Love it.

One of my favorite characters from The Stupidest Angel is in this novel (actually this novel pre-dates The Stupidest Angel. Lust Lizard was written in 1995, Angelin 2004, Demon Keeping in 1992) - the crazed Molly Michon - former movie star of a series of B-Movies, Kendra- Warrior Babe of...etc. There is Theo, the pot smoking police constable...seen pretty much as a joke in Pine Cove. There is also Mavis, the owner of the town bar, who loves her booze and medications...and plastic surgery.

There is a lot more to this novel than the sudden lust of the withdrawing residents, and the crazed lizard...but that's spoilers. The flow of the book is great, I was interested the whole time. The dialogue between characters is also pretty good - I especially enjoy Molly's dialogs and interactions with not only other townies, but her own self. I loved her dialogs and interactions with not only the townies, but her own self. Her mind twists and turns in an amazing way. I think Christopher Moore did a fine job portraying her twisted reasonings and her mind's meanderings. He also did a fine job with a dog - Skinner, who was very frustrated trying to get his messages across to his owner (the Food Guy). Some of my favorite sections are with the Dog, or Molly.

The ending of this novel is seriously twisted - in a good way. Justice of a sort prevails. :) If you like your horror light with mayhem and humor, you're going to love this book. And the best part of this, is Christopher Moore has written quite a few books - most of which I've read and enjoyed quite a bit. Go Here, for a complete list of his novels.

Music Sample of Wilken (my son is drummer)

My only reading challenges, so far

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About Me

I work in a K-8th grade library as a library tech (just one of my jobs). I love working with books, almost as much as I love working with children - sometimes more!
I'm part spanish (Panama)part scottish with mixture of other countries thrown in, born in US. Getting a little older, a little wiser and a little crankier.Two grandchildren, four children, one husband (lol- isn't ONE enough?) two dogs and a cat. I love to read, I love to find new books (new to me), and I'm a little obsessive about buying books. I buy them faster than I can read them. I also love to garden, though it's much harder for me to do so now. I still enjoy having a small flower garden.